Traveling lighter is something I started to do about a year ago. It started mentally by letting go of old thoughts patterns, beliefs and Ideals that were no longer serving me or holding me back and expending my thinking to allow new patterns to form and new ideas to emerge.
This was the switch that kick started traveling lighter physically as well, by shedding 67 pounds. As the pounds melted off, so did the weight and heaviness of life. I began to have this incredible lightness of being as I started experience myself in my body in a whole new way.
Over the past 4 weeks as I've been preparing myself for my cross country move, the notion of traveling lighter has taken on a whole new dimension...packing. When I looked around my apartment and saw what I had accumulated over my 16 years in Chicago, it was overwhelming. How did I ever fit so much into this 900 square foot studio apartment? I immediately knew that this was an opportunity to once again practice traveling lighter.
At first, I was tempted to purge it all, completely let go of everything and start fresh. However, I knew that wasn't entirely realistic, as I would need some things and I don't have the budget at the moment to do a complete apartment makeover (although a girl can dream can't she). So I started asking myself a few questions to help determine what stayed and what would go:
- What do I really need?
- Is this item a fit for who I am now?
- Do I want to leave this item in the past or carry it with me into the future I'm inventing?
- Have I used this item over the past year? (thank you Sara for this one)
With that as my context I went to work at purging and packing. What I discovered was that it was really fun to actively take so much care in clearing out my physical space. I've always believed that you need to clear the space for new things to come in, so it was definitely time to let go of lots of things.
I went through each room in my apartment and every item with care and many things easily made the list of items to go - the winter parka coat, the snow boots, some cooking items that were handed down to me from my mom that I never used and had no idea what they might even be used for.
Then there was the list of things that were without question coming along with me. Included in that list were the chaise lounge and standing lamp (they both remind me of Old Hollywood in the 1920s), the Hindu goddess artwork (my mom made it as a teenager and had it framed for me as a Christmas gift two years ago, after I asked her if I could have it) and my collection of Angels figurines.
Finally, there was this unknown category that I questioned or wasn't sure about. That was a longer process of determining what made the cut and what didn't. Some things that made that list were my sheet music collection, my piano, my journals and some furniture pieces.
I labored over keeping the piano. I played as a child and loved it. As I grew older, I loved being home alone, as I would spend time playing the piano and singing. Then when I went to college, my parents sold the piano, as no one else played and it was collecting dust and serving as a place for my dad to put his clothes. I came home for break one year and it was gone. I was devastated that they sold it and sold it without even asking me.
When I bought the piano a few years ago, I had grand ideas of starting to play again to use it to accompany my self singing, since I had been doing cabaret singing. And I barely even touched it. It started collecting dust and I used it more as a place to display photos then as a musical instrument. I realized that buying the piano had been more about making up for the sold piano from my childhood then playing it and it was easy to choose...the piano would go. And if I wanted one again in the future, I could always buy another one in LA.
My piano now has a nice new owner. A man bought it for his daughter who was about 6 (the same age I was when I started playing) because he played as a child and really wanted her to experience the joy of learning to play. It made me happy to think that my piano might bring some little girl as much joy as it did to me when I learned how to play. I even gave her all of my old piano lesson books.
With the piano gone, I now questioned if I should keep my sheet music collection. It's pretty extensive and all organized in about 8 large binders, by musical genre and in alphabetical order. It took me a long time to compile and organize (not to mention copy the pages) the sheet music so I was torn about what to do. Then I thought, with all that work I put into it and given my love of music and singing I couldn't part with it. So it's coming with me.
The journals were surprisingly easy to part with. I started to pack them and when I picked them up, the energy just didn't feel right and my whole body responded with a no. Those journals were from a past that I have a different relationship to now then when I was in high school, college or in a period in my life where I needed to get my thoughts and emotions out in a cathartic way. Some of those periods were dark times and I've gone through those times and have come out the other side a different person. I see that past differently now then what I wrote when I was experiencing what I wrote about. So out into the trash they went. Along with over 15 garbage bags of other things.
Two trunk loads of things went to the Brown Elephant, resale shop. Other items went to friends. The energy around me felt lighter and lighter each time I let go of these possessions. Giving things away not only clears the space for new things to come in, the spirit of generosity is good karma.
The furniture items I decided not to keep were either sold on Craig's List or went to a consignment shop.
Today, my belongings are packed and labeled in close to 50 boxes , my artwork and fragile items are bubble wrapped and what's left of my furniture is ready to go. Everything leaves on Friday and then I leave on Saturday. I'll arrive in LA with just the few suitcases I'm taking on the plane; and will really be traveling light because my things won't arrive until 10 days later.
I'm also using this time to look what else I'm ready to leave behind in the spirit of traveling lighter. Which relationships or commitments are stagnant or no longer expanding life? What things have been left unsaid and need to be spoken? What habits and patterns are out dated and can be let go of. What new ones may it be time to invent?
In my last spiritual direction session with Lee, he used a metaphor that was especially brilliant in having me understand the the beauty of traveling lighter at a deeper level. In essence, we are like hot air balloons and to go higher, we need to cut away and drop the sandbags that weigh us down. By releasing them, we get to rise to our fullest potential.
You can fly, you can fly, you can fly! Go ahead girl, let it all go and soar through the air:-) Good for you!
I wish you all the best during this wonderful phase of transition!
Posted by: Theresa | 09/20/2010 at 07:28 AM